Tarot Card ~ May 18

The Hanged Man

Castle Perilous

Fortune Fookie:Stay much more aware ~ especially intuitively ~ than normal. Know that positive energy and opportunities are near and can benefit you. Reach out and take hold of them, one by one, to get where you intend.

We last saw this fellow in November. Let’s see if we learned anything ‘t all from the good advice he brought last time. Maybe? [Why do I even ask?]

Here we go:

[Gonzo Tarot reader slowly and carefully sidles to far end of table, humming “Who put the bomp/In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp??” or some other pleasant but innocuous tune.]

[As Sir Terry Pratchett put it in his book, The Light Fantastic, “He moved in a way that suggested he was attempting the world speed record for the nonchalant walk.”]

This is one of those cards whose visual depiction can set clients whimpering and collapsing into themselves in a repetitive rocking fugue the moment they see it. Pretty amazing, really. I suppose I can understand that. The name alone is enough to cause mewling in all of the hardiest guys I’ve read for − okay in the only hardy guy I’ve read for.

Some decks picture a fellow hanging by a rope upside down by one leg from a tree, possibly with his head about to take a deep dunk in a fast flowing river.

Even my deck, Legend by Anna-Marie Ferguson pictures a passle-o-knights left hanging in a grove, one leg and both arms tied behind their backs to show the world that they were rendered utterly powerless and had, one by one, failed in their quests.

So I get why some readers interpret the card as indicating restriction, sacrifice or − at best − feeling drained. Sort of an I need Ativan and a B12 shot kinda energy, ya see.

As the regular crew of bloglodytes expects by now, I see the card differently. When it turns up for a client, whatever area of his or her life we’re examining, I usually say something like,

“First, what the card is saying to you is, ‘If you’ve been feeling stuck in place or like you’re so deep in a rut you can’t see over the edge… Guess what? Good news! You really have been. You aren’t just a whining, puling little git. And knowing that should actually make you feel better, Spunky!

“‘Second, it’stime for you to move up and out of that stuck space. And very soon, if not immediately!’”

And this is How.

So pay attention.

The Hanged Man asks that you be extra vigilant in keeping your intuitive antenna up for strong, wise, functional, interested and caring energy that can and will help pull you out of your rut.

The help may come in small chunks, like a better-paying job that can move you forward − as opposed to winning the Mega Millions jackpot. [Sorry! Remember, I’m just the messenger here.] But the help will be here, maybe even is already here, and it will be here in the ways that can really, truly benefit you.

Your mission then is to stay tuned in, be aware, notice the positive energy or helpful opportunity, reach out for it and grab onto it when it shows up, and use it to move you along to where you really want to be.

As if that weren’t enough, I find that there is an additional directive from the Hanged Man.

The card basically says that, in those moments when the new, positive, helpful energy and opportunities aren’t readily apparent – and those moments happen to all of us − your mission is to refuse to get sucked into the oldIt sucks to be me! I’m hopeless! I’m helpless! whirlpool.

Rather, use the time for

deep prayerwork,

healing meditation, shamanic journeying, etc.

Go deep within for wisdom and direction; embrace your own spirituality, guidance, hope and healing.

Use the “fallow time” in practices that will help you become more fully connected to your truer, deeper, self and to the channels of spiritual power and assistance around you.

So:

Stay aware.

Stay much more aware than normal, in fact, especially intuitively.

Know that positive energy and opportunities are there and will benefit you. Reach out and take hold of them, one by one, to get you where you intend.

If nothin’s shakin’, use the time for prayer, meditation, magical and deep wisdom studies and spiritual practice to increase those elements that are of and for your highest and best.

Bright blessings and beautiful positive flow upward, out to freedom!

Quote for the Day:You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you.~ Thich Nhat Hanh